Her most recent research, published this summer in the Journal of Animal Ecology , focuses on a unique data set: A collection from the Chicago Field Museum that goes back four decades and includes more than 70,000 birds killed during migration in collisions with the Windy City’s skyscrapers.

“I think the results of this paper really add an abundance of caution, that we shouldn't hope that species will adapt to changing climate and changing habitats, that we don't need to do anything,” says Mark Reynolds, lead scientist for the Nature Conservancy’s migratory bird program, who wasn’t involved in the study.

The project seeks to include characteristics like topography and soil type into conservation planning, as scientists expect that representing the full range of variation in these factors in protection plans, and ensuring that important sites are connected by natural land cover, will help landscapes and species adapt to climate change.

Nature is validating what we know about climate change from long-term records of temperature. Earlier plant flowering in spring as a response to global warming in the Washington, D.C. area.